Watershed Reports

Explore the health of Colorado’s rivers statewide

Colorado is referred to as a headwaters state because so many of the major rivers of the United States originate high up in its mountain valleys. The South Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Colorado rivers all begin their path to the sea in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Accordingly, the health of Colorado’s rivers and streams impact states and countries downstream. Take a look at the map below to get an idea of the geography of Colorado’s rivers and streams.

Understanding and assessing stream health can be a complicated issue. To capture a more complete picture of stream health, River Watch conducts statewide water quality monitoring for a variety of characteristics including metals, nutrients, field data, and macroinvertebrates. A crucial part of these efforts is transforming this data into watershed reports. Watershed reports represent an objective analysis of the results of our statewide monitoring program and can be explored on a basin-by-basin basis using the section links below.